See accounts of them in the "Dictionary of
National Biography."--. _W. E. B_.]
THE BEASTS' CONFESSION TO THE PRIEST,
ON OBSERVING HOW MOST MEN MISTAKE THEIR OWN TALENTS. 1732
PREFACE
I have been long of opinion, that there is not a more general and
greater mistake, or of worse consequences through the commerce of
mankind, than the wrong judgments they are apt to entertain of their
own talents. I knew a stuttering alderman in London, a great frequenter
of coffeehouses, who, when a fresh newspaper was brought in, constantly
seized it first, and read it aloud to his brother citizens; but in a
manner as little intelligible to the standers-by as to himself. How many
pretenders to learning expose themselves, by choosing to discourse on
those very parts of science wherewith they are least acquainted! It is
the same case in every other qualification. By the multitude of those
who deal in rhymes, from half a sheet to twenty, which come out every
minute, there must be at least five hundred poets in the city and suburbs
of London: half as many coffeehouse orators, exclusive of the clergy,
forty thousand politicians, and four thousand five hundred profound
scholars; not to mention the wits, the railers, the smart fellows, and
critics; all as illiterate and impudent as a suburb whore.
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